Excessive Execution of Sequential Searches of Data Resource

When a query cannot use an index, the database engine must perform a full sequential scan, checking every single row in a table or view to find matching results. This is like searching through every page of an unsorted book instead of using the index. For large datasets, this process consumes significant server resources (CPU, memory, and I/O) and causes severe performance degradation, leading to slow response times and timeouts. While this is primarily a performance issue, it can become a security vulnerability if an attacker can trigger or influence these inefficient queries. By repeatedly executing such searches, an attacker could exhaust system resources, leading to a denial-of-service (DoS) condition that impacts application availability for all users.